MØ - Waste of Time

Danish alternative pop singer MØ, real name Karen Marie Ørsted, showcases a defiant anti-glamourous image in her videos, and an assured emotional rawness in her music. This endearing lack of pretense makes it much easier to see past the 'front' other artists might put up, and see the distinct personality from MØ herself. 

MØ's lyrics and voice are gritty and turbulent, much like her music, which is a crisp yet organic sounding mesh of alternative R&B and electropop favoured by her peers MS MR, the most obvious initial comparison. Arresting vocal stabs punctuate the industrial-flecked verse, and an unusual chorus melody is made memorable by MØ's delirious vocal. In a European alt-pop scene fairly saturated with indie female singers in this field, MØ looks like a keeper.

FOR FANS OF: MS MR, Charli XCX, Purity Ring

Annie - Tube Stops and Lonely Hearts

After 4 years of silence from the reliably classy Norwegian popstress, Annie returns with "Tube Stops And Lonely Hearts", an unusual yet strangely addictive stop/start dance number that takes generously from her Europop roots, with hints of 80s and 90s revival that ensure Annie's twinkle-twinkle-little-star croon translates effortlessly into the 2010s pop scene. CHVRCHES, Purity Ring et al better keep an eye on Annie, she might just be biding her time to reclaim her europop throne.

FOR FANS OF: Charli XCX, Saint Etienne, Grimes

AlunaGeorge - Attracting Flies

AlunaGeorge continue to elude genres whilst sounding effortlessly cool and current, and the crumbling beats and battering ram synths of "Attracting Flies" are no exception. Finding a comfortable middle ground between the silky sweet Post R&B of Purity Ring and the schizophrenic hip hop beats of Hudson Mohawke, this is their most confident offering since the goliath "You Know You Like It".

Their debut record Body Music is out on July 1st.

FOR FANS OF: Purity Ring, Hudson Mohawke, Niki & The Dove

MØ - Pilgrim & Maiden

In the sea of wannabe cult-indiepop female singers in 2012, it's rare you find a quality song in the mire of fashionably vague videos and slicks electro-R&B beats. But Danish singer MØ's "Pilgrim" combines jaunty brass hooks with a powerhouse of a chorus and a Purity Ring-esque thud and clatter beat. There's a hint of personality and energy in her vocal when she singer "all the time I just want to fuck it up", and it's refreshing to hear a female indiepop singer do something other than deadpan in 2012. Not that the track will displease any fans of deadpan.

Check out her first single "Maiden" too,  a slightly eerier number that has european singer/songwriter written all over it, and features a gorgeous post-chorus guitar hook and the seductive lyric "my desire is ravaging me..."

FOR FANS OF: Purity Ring, Wild Belle, Charli XCX

Give Pop A Chance's Best Of July Round-Up: INCLUDING 15-TRACK MIX!

ENJOY THE GIVE-POP-A-CHANCE JULY 2012 MIX BELOW!



Azealia Banks finally dropped her mixtape Fantasea this month, to a gleeful response from this blogger. A mix of bass-heavy hip hop, underground dance and house, working with a plethora of brilliant underground producers, highlights including the camp, high fashion house anthem "Fierce" (0:00 in the mix), and brilliantly explicit moombahton flirtation "Esta Noche" (42:41), penned by Munchi.


Bat For Lashes also finally released a new single, a simple piano and voice lament, the heartbreaking "Laura" (28:42).


If you've not heard Grimes latest work with producers Blood Diamonds, the track "Phone Sex" is as balearic and blissful as it is dark and disturbing, sweetened considerably by some pretty steel drums and poppy beat. Whilst you're checking this out, the Unicorn Kid remix (45:52) is also worth a listen or 10; the kid only goes from strength to strength, his production values having never sounded more chart friendly, whilst never losing the 90s rave vibe that gives everything he touches such a joyously euphoric sound.


Anyone missing their indiepop need look no further than The Crookes, whose debut record Hold Fast is pumped with youthful energy and earworm hooks. Particularly exciting is single "Maybe in the Dark" (26:14), oozing the same desperate teenage woes of their equally likeable peers The Heartbreaks.


After opening many a recent set with the track, Crystal Castles (10:46) finally shared a studio version of the dark, difficult and foreboding "Plague", sounding like a rave caught in a tornado, with Alice Glass crying "I am the plague!" with trademark alarming gusto in the chorus.


Etta Bond's free EP Emergency Room, produced at the dirty dubstep hands of 22 year old London producer Raf Riley, made early preview "Ask Me To Stay", seem like the weak pleas of an innocent girl in comparison to aggressive anthems about vomiting, fake tan and kissing on the tube. "Boring Bitches" (3:06) is a clear standout, with Etta's enraged party girl rant at said bitches and a drop to make you bleed from the eyes.


Pnau getting access to some of Elton John's back catalogue was a bizarre project, but a successful, lush sounding one, with Pnau merging slick 70s disco sounds with a gorgeous 80s warmpad sheen, particularly on the heartbreakingly beautiful tragic disco anthem "Sad" (23:00).


My favourite remix of the month has got to go to the Krystal Klear mix of the latest Marina & The Diamonds single "Power & Control" (32:58). The Manc producer takes the initially plodding track and turns it into a 1992 house banger, complete with token bubbling organ basslines and bright piano hits.


Passion Pit returned to their early bubblegum hyperpop tendencies of early tracks like "Smile Upon Me" for a brief moment on their sophomore effort Gossamer, for the cut and paste joy of "I'll Be Alright" (18:39), which stands out like a blinding ray of sunshine on a generally emotionally heavy album. Although lyrically its just as paranoid as the rest of the record, you wouldn't guess by all the cheery melodies flying around.


The debut album by electronic bass band Purity Ring however had no shortage of highlights, with the gory words and meatgrinder bassline of "Fineshrine" (7:19) and hypnotic middle eastern bells and sugar sweet melodies of "Amenamy" (36:21) proving to be amoungst the best.


Just when you thought M83's "Midnight City" (14:59) had done its fair share of rounds, eerie electropop act Saint Saviour posts a cover so good that it will undoubtedly do its own fair share. But with haunting synth pads, distant cooing vocals and an addictive rework of the already addictive main refrain, it almost deserves to stand on its own as an original work, such is the creativity on show here.


Bass producers Lunice and Hudson Mohawke's duo project TNGHT also had released its first EP, and the dance world is already trembling under the weight of the brass bass line in "Higher Ground" (39:44).


But the real event of July was The xx finally releasing their comeback single, "Angels" (50:09). Read my review of it here.

Pop Comment: Passion Pit vs. Purity Ring

It's the age old musical argument, at least in pop music... which is ultimately better, the grow-er or the show-er? Two great releases this week emerge triumphant, after a moderate drought of decent new releases over the last month: Passion Pit's second full length Gossamer and Purity Ring's long-awaited debut Shrines.

Although both are from the overflowing pot of 'post-electropop' bands, the two acts have little in common, but I compare them because I believe both to be of End-Of-Year-List quality for entirely different reasons, both of which I can appreciate.

Gossamer is very wordy, as Passion Pit have always been, but even wordier this time round as the focus on hooks seems dwindling, and frontman Michael Angelakos seems to put a lot more emphasis on storytelling in his lyrics.

Funnily enough, soundwise Gossamer is closer in sound to the band's smashing debut EP, drenched in "Sleepyhead" chipmunk voices, particularly on "I'll Be Alright", a hyperactive blinding ray of sunshine masquerading as a pop song. But whilst the sound might be brighter, rawer and more in your face than the sleek, commercial Manners, the songs are actually darker, with confessions like "I'm so self loathing that it's hard for me to see" on said "I'll Be Alright". It's these dark lyrical tones that tend to overshadow big melodies, but with repeat listens, the bittersweet taste of the record becomes more-ish. "Constant Conversations" and "Love is Greed" in particular benefit from a second listen, as their gorgeous melodies shine brighter once the impact of the lyrics has sunk in.

Shrines on the other hand wears its bittersweetness on its sleeve, and its razor sharp witchy hip hop beats and aching synth lines are instantly dark but irresistably catchy. Lyrically it is obscure but alarming, its impact doubled by the sweet indie-girl croons of Megan James. Phrases like "ears ringing, teeth clicking" on jittery breakthrough track "Ungirthed" and "cut open my sternum and poke my little ribs around" on the colossal and brilliant "Fineshrine", never become any more comfortable to listen to. The album is 38 minutes, short, sweet and occasionally shocking.


Yet Shrines makes sense whether it be one track here, or another there. It's all great, but in the space of a whole album, tracks like "Belispeak" and "Shuck" tend to sound like rehashes. It's a great sound to rehash, and just as enjoyable, but the feeling that you've heard a song previously on the album can be hard to shake. However, the trio of gritty "Fineshrine", "Ungirthed" and the blissful "Amenamy", is a fine, fine one, and "Obedear" later on, makes a hat trick a quad trick of four truly perfect, instantly loveable tracks, which is more than can be said for Gossamer, which, "I'll Be Alright" aside, is hard to pick favourites from until you dive back in a few times.

Both will make my end of year top 20 albums no doubt, but whilst I love travelling Gossamer's shy but beautifully paved twee-synth roads to its heart, I won't be taking long journies with Shrines. However, I will probably have a drunken dancefloor euphoria moment with each one of the 11 tracks separately before the year is out. As for Gossamer, as much as the album as a whole makes sense, only "I'll Be Alright" could end up being my most overplayed song of the year, if only for the heart-stopping opening 20 seconds. Try it yourself...